Trouble for the poor in Alabama

[Pangur Bán]

Banks stand to lose millions of dollars in debt repayments if the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history is allowed to proceed.

But the real victims of the financial collapse in the US state of Alabama's most populous county are its poorest residents - forced to bathe in bottled water and use portable toilets after being cut off from the mains supply.

And there is widespread anger in Jefferson County that swingeing sewerage rate hikes could have been avoided but for the greed, corruption and incompetence of local politicians, government officials and Wall Street financiers. ...

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

When it comes to treatment of the poor and vulnerable in the US, nothing really surprises me any more. But come on?

I'm betting those who hate governmental paternalism will blame Government (the abstraction) for this ... which suggests to me we're basically screwed. No matter how bad corruption and mistreatment of the poor gets, we'll always use it as an excuse to protect the poor even less.

 

[Quackers]

Uhmm..what happened?

 

[Pangur Bán]

Uhmm..what happened?

Basically the meritocratic superbeings at JP Morgan dubbed and bribed the idiotic and corrupt officials who run Jefferson county out of billions to finance sewage renovation, and the debt is now so large that to pay water and sewage bills are rising out of reach of the county's poor.

 

[madviking]

Wow. This isn't some county in out in hick country. This is the county that has Birmingham in it.

Wow.

 

[Cutlass]

You need some wealth to be worth swindling.

 

[Maniacal]

I wasn't aware they had running water in Alabama

All kidding aside, this is a pretty big screw up. I wonder if there will be riots?

 

[Dachs]

Wow. This isn't some county in out in hick country. This is the county that has Birmingham in it.

Wow.

I see you haven't been to Birmingham.

 

[Pangur Bán]

This is the most shared BBC article atm. Basically much of the English-speaking world is reading about how poor American blacks have to go without running water so that some Wall Street bondholders continue to receive fat cheques ... it's like something from a cartoon.

 

[madviking]

I see you haven't been to Birmingham.

Not being to Alabama is something I would like to keep on my list of accomplishments.

bah i'm illiterate.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Erm. Can you show me where in the article they talk about "poor American blacks"?

I didn't say they did.

But as it happens the article makes it clear that the bulk of people affected are African-Americans. And, yes, when stuff happens in the US south and blacks disproportionately suffer (intentionally or not), that's what simple folk in Europe talk about (rightly or wrongly).

 

[Smellincoffee]

We're quite proud. One of the biggest county-declared bankruptcies in the nation!

 

[GamezRule]

We're quite proud. One of the biggest county-declared bankruptcies in the nation!

Silly rednecks.

Seriously, the fact that this isn't surprising at all upsets me more then the fact that it happened.

 

[useless]

Poverty in America? Nah, doesn't exist.

But more seriously, this is disgusting, hope it gets fixed soon.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The facility, which has been under construction since 1996, was meant to cost about $300m. But the bill soared to $3.1bn

What the ?

 

[ParkCungHee]

I see you haven't been to Birmingham.

It wasn't easy to beat Britain for worst Birmingham, but we did it.
USA #1!

 

[LegionSteve]

Very sorry for the people who are suffering because of this scandal, and something must be done about it.

It wasn't easy to beat Britain for worst Birmingham, but we did it.
USA #1!

but on the other hand, that is very funny


Edit - just thought some more about this bit:

She says soaring sewer-rate bills have traditionally hit the poorest parts of the county hardest, as better-off people in the suburbs installed septic tanks at their properties.

So the people who can afford to, are paying for their own sewerage service - instead of paying the county? So the burden of paying for the county sewerage foul-up falls more and more on the people who can least afford it. Until they eventually have to chose between paying their sewerage bill or buying food. Seems like a no-win situation

 

[bathsheba666]

They can simply choose not to eat, then they wont need sewerage. Now that's win-win.

 

[Murky]

The poor suffering because of incompetent/corrupt politicians and greed on Wall Street? Say it isn't so..

 

[wapamingo]

This is truly bothersome.

The people themselves have done nothing wrong but are suffering from incompetent municipal management.

There will be riots, if i were there i would riot. This type of thing infuriates me, and few things do that.

But how to fix? 300M to 3.1B capex escalation... Oh Em Ge. They need to lynch someone or a few.

 

[downtown]

Yeah, this is trouble for EVERYBODY, not just the poor. Who in their right mind would want to build in Birmingham now? Who'd want to invest there and deal with those local officials?